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Friday, June 17, 2005Instapundithas some notes on Durbin's idiocy about Nazi guards at Guantanamo. Among other things, it is noted that Trent Lott lost his leadership position for similarly idiotic comments. But Durbin won't fall. Here's why: While we rightly credit Josh Marshall and a few others on the left for keeping the Trent Lott story alive when the media was busy with other things, it's not Marshall that brought Lott down. If Josh Marshall could sink Republican leaders, Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, not to mention Bush, would have been gone long ago. What did Trent Lott in was when National Review types and other conservative/libertarian commentators, including the right-leaning blogosphere, piled on. Having the opposition mad at you can be tedious. It's when your base is embarrassed enough by you to send you packing that you're truly finished. Republicans embarrass much more easily than Democrats. Dick Durbin could accuse our soldiers of making the Guantanamo prisoners play Barbies in an effort to destroy their manhood and half his party would go, "Dude, those Republicans really are evil!" The other half would know it was over the top but consider it all right as long as it hurt Bush. That's why Durbin will stay in the Democratic leadership. It's also why his party will stay in the minority. 
posted by gbarto at 11:12 PM Thursday, June 16, 2005Quaking in our bootsI guess we've had a couple more quakes out here along the California coastline. The one in LA even made the headlines, as did the one north of San Fran that prompted Crescent City's just in case tsunami evacuation. Don't know a thing about any of it myself. Haven't felt any shocks or tremors and hope not to. But everyone's talking about it.
posted by gbarto at 6:43 PM Tuesday, June 14, 2005Stolen headline: The TGIF problemCicero points out the bit, which suggests one problem with all the editorialists and policy wonks who think we could and should get a few more years of work out of folks before they retire: If you write editorials or policy papers for a living, a couple more years of work at the office isn't so bad. If you put the rooves on people's houses or empty the trash at the local park, though, keeping at your trade when you're 65 is a little more problematic. Cicero rightly points out another bit, though, for all those who glory in the idea of working your way up and sweating your way through: the lousier the job, these days, the less it pays. In an earlier time, maybe, you had to give somebody top dollar to do the hard or ucky stuff. Now it's sufficient to offer those who are the most desperate lousy jobs since it's all they can get. And if those people are in positions society doesn't want to think about, you don't even have to worry that your good workers will get hired away because no one will look at them long enough to notice. That's why the cooks in your San Jose ethnic restaurants are illegals and the waiters are on limited option green cards. Oh, and the person ringing you out at the supermarket used to write computer software - you think I'm joking, but I'm not; he's a cashier because he's not in shape enough to do contract labor and never learned a useful trade like plumbing.
posted by gbarto at 11:10 PM So, Michael Jackson is not guilty. At last, there will be something to talk about other than OJ. Jackson strikes me as a very messed up person. Considering that he went from the bubble of the Jehovah's Witnesses to the bubble of childhood fame to a bubble of fame, wealth and privilege carefully guarded by those assistants who earn their living maintaining it, it's not surprising that he'd turn out a bit odd. Given Jackson's, er, eccentricities, I wouldn't let my kid stay overnight with him. I have serious questions about those who have. If we "know" all the things we supposedly "know" about Jackson, the parents should have faced charges for reckless endangerment at the same time he faced his own trial. I don't personally know whether Jackson is just a messed up man child, or whether he has and acts upon more sinister impulses. But a jury of his peers that listened to far more information about the matter than I ever want to hear judged him not guilty. I'm not second-guessing them.
posted by gbarto at 8:36 AM Guytak sends a link to the California NRA's legislative page. It's amazing how many bad measures are being considered by the Assembly. Presumably the page is a bit on the alarmist side here and there; on the other hand, the California Assembly can get pretty alarming.
posted by gbarto at 8:32 AM Sunday, June 12, 2005Hmm. Cheney went on Hannity and Colmes and raised real questions about Dean's latest nonsense.One hopes the Democrats get their act together, not for their own sake but for the convenience of our two party system. The nice thing about a two-party system (as opposed to one-party or multiparty systems) is that even if neither party believes in or stands for anything, to insure its survival each party must make a regular exercise of designing a program with a chance of appealing to the majority and, if elected, make a pretense of hewing to the wishes of the people to remain in power. Even if we fired the RNC and DNC and put Coke and Pepsi in charge of our governance, after a few election cycles we'd have ardent believers in each and a vast middle that switched sides off and on as the two tried to put together the package with the broadest appeal. Dean would have a chance in a multiparty system, using his ability to narrowcast to carve out a niche that made him a player, maybe even a kingmaker. But in our two-party system, with evolved rules designed to insure its perpetuation, the Dems are going to have to move away from Dean or risk being replaced. Our system balances itself by redesignating the leadership and loyal opposition from time to time. Dean offers neither credible opposition nor credible potential for leadership. It is time for him to join Trent Lott among the party men who moved aside when they, not their party's positions, became the issue.
posted by gbarto at 2:26 PM |
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